Two playing sessions both on stable 044.123800, one hardcore, one regular. With both characters I am not able to see binoculars at all. A buddy dropped his pair on the floor but I did not see it, not in normal vision and not in vicinity. We then found a new one on its original spawn spot inside a building - he saw it I could not.

Note that there is no empty item slot like with sardines/tuna, the whole item field does not appear, as well as the 3d model in main view.

On the same build on experimental I had several binoculars without any problem.